


Tell Me a Fantasy

by TheQueen



Series: Fics I Wrote in A Dream [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Drabble, Modern Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-19
Updated: 2018-03-19
Packaged: 2019-04-04 19:46:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14027442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheQueen/pseuds/TheQueen
Summary: Hunk and Lance was the couple you thought would never break up.





	Tell Me a Fantasy

Hunk and Lance was the couple you thought would never break up.

They started in middle school and stayed strong through high school. Lance and Hunk were  _ the _ power couple. When Lance won homecoming King, Hunk was nominated homecoming prince even though he didn't run just because no one was going to make Lance dance with someone else.

When university applications came, they were both sure they would both attend the local state university three hours away, get married after they got their degrees, and move in together with three dogs, a cat, and a kid. They had had it all planned out.

But that didn’t mean it was set in stone. When the time came, both Hunk and Lance got into their reach schools. Lance applied to the Garrison, an out of state university in Colorado while Hunk got into Berkeley all the way in California.

A 17 hour drive apart.

At first it was fine. They'd been together for so long how could they not give long distance a try? They figured it’d be hard but nothing they couldn’t handle. They loved each other.

At first they called and called often. Facetimed and Skyped. All the good stuff.

They made plans to visit each other on Labor Day, and when school got in the way, then fall break, and then Halloween, until it was finals and they were calling each other less and less. Good Night Calls became Good Night Texts until sometimes Hunk forgot because he worked himself into a stupor and Lance made friends that kept him out later and later.

When they met again on Christmas Break, they ran to each other with tears in their eyes and wrapped around each other like nothing in the world could tear them apart. Lance had grown taller, thinner: a steady college diet causing a freshman 15 loss instead of a freshman 15 gain. He'd also gotten a piercing in his left ear despite a lifetime fear of needles. Hunk had grown tired: dark circles and dry patchy skin because of a poor diet of forgetting to drink water (something Lance thoroughly lectured him on). He’d gotten a tattoo on his left wrist of a small wrench on a dare.

They spent the entire break together, half of it wrapped in each other’s arms. They promised each other to do better next semester. To meet each other. To call more. To text more. To be with each other more.

And they tried

They did. They really did.

But homework Skype calls tended to be more distracting than useful. And classes and physical friends started to take priority

One day Hunk calls Lance and Keith picks up. Apparently he'd spent the night after a study session. They were in a group project together. Hunk tries not to be jealous. Lance is allowed friends. Lance is allowed platonic cuddles. He knows how touchy Lance can be, knows Lance needs people.

But he's lonely.

After that, Hunk decides to make an effort and starts to make friends. He's a likeable guy. Smart. A good cook. A good conversationalist. A nice competitive streak without being a sore loser. It doesn't long for Hunk to make friends. Soon he's the one missing calls, dropping texts in an attempt to juggle a social life and school and work and extracurricular.

One day Hunk wakes up and realizes it's been two weeks since he talked to Lance

This time when they meet during Summer Break there is something awkward in the air. Something just slightly off when Lance reaches for Hunk's hand and Hunk hesitates. In the way Hunk goes in for a kiss and Lance turns away so he's brushing the corners of lips and cheeks

7 years. And it's falling apart all so fast.

.

Lance admits he let himself go to hard freshman year. He feels like a failure. His grades slipped because of bad decisions and bad friends. His homesickness and his personal worries leaving him certain he's no longer worthy of Hunk, someone so kind and good. Insecurity renders him stiff and awkward. When he returns to campus, he decides to better himself, make himself someone worthy. He cuts a lot of people out of his life and finds himself lonely except for Keith, a person he met thanks to a group assignment, and his older brother Shiro and his boyfriend Matt.

And if he develops a habit of falling asleep at his desk and not eating and not sleeping and taking on too many projects or hours at work, then that's okay. College kids are supposed to be busy and sleep deprived and overworked

Overtime Lance and Keith grow closer and closer as he admits his worries of disappointing his family and Hunk, and Keith admits he's terrified of disappointing Shiro, the only person who's ever cared for him and is 95% of the reason he is even attending University.

At the same time Hunk spends most of his days with Pidge and Shay, confessing his fears that Lance has found someone better, that he's just waiting for Hunk to say they're over. Pidge is the first one to ask would it be so bad at this point if they broke up.

Hunk doesn’t know. 

The day Lance returns for the winter break he's ecstatic. He aced all his classes. He's much more achieved. He's going to be a TA next semester. His mothers are so proud of him. But he can't seem to get in touch with Hunk.

Hunk has had a long time to think. Four months of near constant silence is a long time to think. And Hunk decides there is no other way for this story to end. But he can't do it. He can't. He loves Lance. He adores Lance. He's seen Lance at his highest and his lowest. He has seen Lance at his most vulnerable. He swears he knows Lance better than he knows himself.

But still... When he finally steels himself, he walks to Lance's door (just three houses over and how many times had they played up and down these streets as children?) and takes a deep breath before knocking. When Lance opens the door just as beautiful and happy and amazing as he remembered him, Hunk tries to convince himself it's like ripping off a bandage

Lance holds it together for Hunk. He has to. He can see it in the way Hunk holds himself that this is hurting Hunk as well. And Lance is certain it's his fault. Hunk realized the truth: he isn't good enough, hunk deserves better. Really it was only a matter of time wasn't it?

How could he have been so selfish as to assume Hunk would wait?

They don't talk for the rest of the break.

Hunk isn't doing much better. But at the same time at least he's no longer in limbo. he has his answer now. he doesn't have to wait by the phone

And if part of him wishes Lance had argued, had begged him to stay, then that's that.

He loves Lance. He always will. But it's time to move on.

.

Hunk’s grades are good. he gets an internship and then an offer to do research with a professor he really likes. he's doing okay. Shay has been really good to him. A wonderful rock to lean on in his weaker moments and he appreciates her for that

Lance slowly gets his feet back under him. Hunk isn't coming back and he needs to accept that. There is a lot of regret there. A lot of guilt. But Keith has been helping him work through that, reminding him that it takes two to make a relationship. That Hunk could have reached out just as much as Lance could have. He keeps his grades up. For the summer he gets a co-op working for a company near his school. He agrees to move in with Keith who’s staying for his own internship.

It seems inevitable that after Pidge mentions in passing that Shay likes Hunk that Hunk asks her on a date. It's the first time he's ever dated someone. He and Lance just sort of....fell into each other, started being together before they even realized they were together.

The date goes well. It's fun! They go for dinner and then a movie. And in the end Shay comes back to Hunk's dorm and they just talk around a box of peanuts.

When the semester ends, Hunk and Shay agree to keep in touch, both excited to see each other the next semester.

They haven't started calling themselves boyfriend and girlfriend just yet but it's there. The knowledge that they're about to become something present in the air.

Lance moves in with Keith and gets used to the domestic life. Waking up to the sound of Keith singing in the shower as he makes coffee or breakfast if they both have the day off. Doing laundry together and spending their evenings unwinding in mutual, peaceful silence or soft spoken conversation.

The day Lance leans forward and presses a kiss to Keith's mouth mid sentence, it’s as easy as breathing.

.

Summer gives to fall.

Hunk returns to campus, returns to Shay and the life he's built for himself out west.

Lance continues to live with Keith. They renew their lease. A new friend named Allura moves in. She's a PhD student finishing her research in working memory. Everyday they fall more and more in love.

When Lance returns home for Christmas -- his co-op over -- he realizes he's a very different person than the boy he was when he left last Christmas. He's grown up. He's realized what it means to be an adult, to work a 9 to 5 and pay bills and cook every day. He knows what it's like to fall down again and again and pick himself back up. He's learned how to judge himself fairly and how to leave people who are cruel to him.

He's glad he went to Garrison. He's glad he's gotten to grow up into the person he sees in the mirror.

But there is one thing left to do.

He walks to Hunk's house with a peace offering. His heart in a letter. He doesn't know if Hunk will read it; he hopes Hunk will. He hopes for the sake of what they had--first childhood friends and then childhood lovers--that Hunk will give him at least a half an hour of his time.

Hunk, for a moment, doesn't recognize the Lance he sees in his doorway. He's thin still. Far too thin. But happy. Standing tall with a small smile on his face. "Hey, Hunk."

"Hey, Lance... Long time no see. Do you... do you want to come in?"

They sit down in Hunk's living room and it hasn't changed much since the last time Lance has been here one and a half years ago. And it's crazy to think it’s been that long! Lance gives the letter silently, tells Hunk he wants to apologize.

Hunk reads it in silence. It's an apology letter but it’s also more. It's a question. Where do we go from here? There is history between them. There is pain. But there is also good things. Great things.

"Can we be friends," Lance asks.

Hunk doesn't know

But he wants to try.

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> So this is actually a fic outline that I wrote ages ago but realized I was never going to write this story out completely. I still wanted to get my idea out though so here you go. Please let me know what you think!
> 
> I might post a few more of these. I've got more ideas than time lately.


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